Thought I would start a different journal, and post my journey back into cutting (after a long time of bulking - like many years of it!).

I will say that I peaked at 180 lbs this winter (and yes I weighed myself after a day of eating, and a nice large dinner meal - the opposite of what you do when you weigh yourself during the dieting phase).

I officially started my diet the 1st of March. My comp show that I want to do is the NPC Natural Michigan BB show that is July 14 (http://www.michigannpcnews.com/2012_npc_schedule), but I also am looking at the Michigan Championships as a National Qualifier for the Team Universe for this year (as the Team Universe competition is July 6 for this year).

I do not know if I can work my cutting magic by May 12, though I could also shoot for the first show that I ever done in my BB life was the Grand Rapids open (came in second in the lightweight division at a mere 112lbs! wrong dieting style in my first attempt at getting cut) the week after the Michigan Championships as it is also a National Qualifier. I shall see where my body is at that point in time in May.

Today was a good day, even though a wrench was thrown into the day by not having my own car to drive around today. My helpful partner picked me up and we went to our massage therapist and had our neck/shoulder areas worked on. This is our 2nd Monday (weightlifting day off) of getting our necks worked on: seems to be helping us out alot.

We also went to the gym afterwards and I did 30 minutes of Elliptical HIIT, on level 3, and did the 5K display in 26.25 minutes (best so far). Did you know that when this particular elliptical gets over 17 MPH, that it puts on its own brakes? I now try to get it to the 16.9 MPH and stay there for the 30 second interval (sometimes longer if the song beats stay way up there to keep my momentum going). Sweating by the second fast interval and I finally got the heart rate monitor (that works on and off, but seems to work well after my palms are all sweaty) up to 170! Otherwise it stays around 140.

Weight this morning: 170.6

Not happy about this still. My calendar has me at 168 for the past week, and 166 for the end of this week. So I am in hyper diet mode to help stimulate the losing of bodyfat. All I know is that I am looking forward to tomorrow (45 degree weather with partly cloudy skies), but more to the 55 degree warm weather on Wednesday! Trail running here I come back to it again!

Diet has just become more restrictive due to no weight loss, though I will be making a vegan cheesecake tomorrow for eating on my cheat meal (will need to boost calories in a day or two to keep from going into low metabolism mode). Shall plan to do a nice 5 mile trail run right before I devour 1/3 of it (and let the gluten bloat begin!). This is so I am in fat burning mode when I eat my high calorie cheat meal.

Green tea and yerba mate tea seem to be giving me energy for my cardio and curbing my appetitie, so far they seem to be nice thermogenics for me.

Supplements right now are: Resveratrol, Carnitine, Pro Stack by World ABS, Vega Performance Protein Powder,and Vega's Pre-Workout and their Post workout Accelerator Recovery supplements. I also take New Chapter's Blood Builder for my iron supplementation as I was diagnosed as anemic just before winter (and it takes a good 6 months of supplementation for a normal person to get back to normal range levels - which reminds me that I have to go and get my monthly blood test for iron done and make sure it is going up still).

Weighed in this morning at 167.6! So my 2 days of cardio and intense dieting paid off! Now the goal of 166 for this week sounds do-able!

Yeah, when I said I peaked at 180, I really was around 176 most of the time. Plus I started my diet last month, but not officially - like not responsible if I lost the 2lbs a week or anything. But now I have to be held accountable to my time schedule of weight lost, and have to stick to it. I have a predicted comp weight of 134lb for July - so heavyweight here I come I guess (at 5'4" that seems ridiculous to me. Though if my weight turns out to be under 125 for middleweight, that seems more realistic at my height to me). I just haven't seen the comp me in such a long time, and yet I am lifting more weight than ever - so I figure I have to have more muscle mass on me this time due to the weights I am lifting, and the slow weight loss. I am anxious to see what happens! Heavyweight or Middleweight - it won't matter (especially if it was like last year with only 2 to 3 girls participating in the Women's Open BB comp - they lump you all in together).

Plan is Delts for today's weight training, and a trail run hopefully - if the weather permits it - and it has to be sometime around noon for that to happen. Otherwise I might just have to try my friend's INSANITY dvd that he has and he seems to love it (and with his fit body looking as it does - not a BBer, but still very nice with the 8+ pack going on - gotta love the intercostals when someone has them showing too!).

Now, for that vegan cheesecake! Have to get it done early this morning so it can chill all day in the frig (at least 8 hours the cookbook says - I think I waited 6 hours last time!). Then again, I plan to have it after I do my long trail run in the 55 degree weather predicted for tomorrow. But, oh wait, I have a Kettlebell class tomorrow. . . . plus a good strong Leg workout. . . I think I will need some more green tea to get thru all this cardio that I have on my plate! I feel like Synny now with her 1 hour of yoga, 1 hour of Boot camp, and 1 hour of weightlifting! How do you do it all girl?

between you , sludge, sunny and meech--Big motivations! Thank you. No competitions for me, ever again ( its just me--I admire and respect those that do)...but cutting alongside you all (part of the Job Search and wanting to be leanest and meanest to get the job of my hearts desire). I know so many people that alternate between Insanity and P90X- have yet to do--please share what you think after. and enjoy the cheesecake. I just threw away my "follow your heart" cream cheese as it was too tempting to have in the fridge. Just curious- what does an average food day look like for you?

Nowadays, it is a raw vegan shake in the morning: 1 banana, 1/2 bag of frozen mango, 1/4 cup of frozen wild blueberries, water, and 1 scoop of Vega Performance Protein Powder (VP for short), with a big Voss water bottle of Vanilla Spice Energizer tea from Yogi teas. Water comes from the water jug (1 gallon filled full in the morning).

Then some cardio.

Then 5 oz of wildwood firm tofu, cut up and cooked in a nonskillet pan (usually only get one side to crisp up - that way it isn't all mushy and rubbery) with half bag of frozen veggies grilled in it afterwards (Mediterranean Mix seems to be my choice lately, before that it was the California blend). And another Voss water bottle of Yogi Kombucha green tea.

Note here: was also having about 5 oz of brown rice with the tofu and veggies, but I have cut them out just for the past 2 days to keep my carbs way down. Tomorrow I will probably do the same as it is cheesecake cheat day, but the day after I will add it back in for a couple of days, and then off again. Keep my body guessing - brown rice or no?

Then I will have an apple and VP about 1/2 hour before weightlifting, and take the Vega Pre-workout with Yerba Mate tea in the Voss water bottle along with me to the gym, and begin drinking it thruout most of my workout (1 hour). Then I have the Vega recovery accelerator with another VP and water from my water jug at the end of the weightlifting session (seems to be 2 hour sessions lately - and I am dying for it! It took only 10 minutes after downing the VP/Vega recovery accelerator to feel the energy flowing thru my body again! Going to the edge again. I remember how that felt. It is not so good when you are out trail running though, and I still have a long way to go to get back home -cell phone time! hopefully somebody is awake or at least home/nearby to come and get me!).

Then I have 6 oz of my homemade seiten (no carbs in it this time, because I can now make it with just vital wheat gluten, garlic granules, onion granules, red pepper flakes, and Kal nutritional yeast flakes, with veggie broth as the liquid) and again some veggies (sometimes it is the frozen veggies, but tonight it was all fresh - pineapple, sweet red pepper, onions, and garlic/balsamic vinegar/glutenfree soy sauce/pineapple juice for a sweet and sour sauce over everything).

Then a VP an hour before bedtime.

Now I will judge how I am feeling and if I am a little low, I will eat some fruit or veggies (sugar snap peas lately). Popcorn is my last 'fill my tummy with fluff to make it feel at least full' food, but it does not do too much for taste. And when in doubt, I brew some green tea and sip it till the cravings go away.

And yes, the water jug has to be empty by the night time: used mostly for my green tea in my Voss water bottle.

Today I had to wait till noon for the weather to get to 40 degrees - and it was windy . I still took off trail jogging for my usual 2 miles. It took me 30 minutes to do it today with the wind and not feeling the energy like I did the last time I was out on the trail. It was sunny, but the clouds would come in and cast a dark shadow on the trail once in awhile. Still, it felt wonderful to be outside and not having the face frozen.Today's workout was Delts. My partner wanted to work with Dumbbells today, so we did the DB Shoulder Press, DB Side Laterals, Bent-Over DB Rear Delt flyes, DB Front raises, and I played around with the resistance band (blue) and some of the machines. I was not as energetic as I was last time (the drop in calories is effecting my weights this time, plus the cardio in the morning is stealing some of my mojo for weightlifting as my partner tells me). My neck still feels wonderful though, which surprises me as doing Delts usually makes me feel all the knots in my neck, or it makes all the knots in my neck . I'm liking the mini neck massage that my partner and I got on the past two Mondays. Yeah baby!Too tired to try the Insanity dvd tonight. Maybe tomorrow. Though tomorrow is my first official Kettlebell class (the last one was just a tutorial from the teacher/personal trainer and I was sweating buckets) and Leg day. I wonder if I will be alive tomorrow night? If not that will be OK, as I will have cheesecake after Kettlebells and before Leg workout - I will die with a cheesey smile on my face.

You either increase cardio (or type of cardio) or you decrease carbs. Last time I took out all the fruits (at least bananas, and of course smoothies) except for a few frozen ones here and there (nutritional value and sometimes you just need to get some glucose up to the brain) about a month or so before the comp. Veggies then become the main staple - like a huge salad with lemon juice.

My cardio will just naturally increase due to warmer weather and me being outside alot - though when we were young it was called playing outside. Being able to just hit any trail around here and jog for hours is my adult playing outside now.

Totally jealous of the trail runs...that was my passion for years, and I truly, physically can no longer run ( a 28 year old habit--Gone..poof) Thanks for the food day -I know you wrote your seitan recipe somewhere else...would you mind re posting. again, Thank you.

LOL I just found your new journal and read your comment how I do it.... Well yoga is always in the mornings except Sunday. So I have 7 hrs to come off my relax mode and build up my reserves for boot camp and weights. I am also ADHD so give me 15 min after my workout I am ready for round 2. Sundays are sometimes it is a rest day sometimes it is a weights day. I have been getting my Sunday cardio in doing trail hiking and then hitting the gym for weights and yoga. I wish I could bottle up my energy level for you

I do because I can. I can because I want to. I want to because you said I couldn't.